Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Black Hood Radio Show "Emerald Voodoo Ring"

From The Mighty Crusaders Network:

After three years in the comic books, The Black Hood debuted on network radio on July 7, 1943 on the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS.) It was a sustaining (non-sponsored) series and aired its 15 minute episodes five times weekly until it went off the air in January 1944, having failing to pick up an advertiser. Two then unknown, but competent, radio performers played the leads: Scott Douglas portrayed The Black Hood and Kip Burland, while Marjorie Cramer was the voice of his girl friend, Barbara Sutton, usually called "Babs." Radio standards of content were more stringent than the pulps and the comic books, so radio's Black Hood had less violence in his stories, and bondage and torture were eliminated. A supporting character in this radio series, Sergeant McGinty of the local police, was a third wheel to the crime solvingaccomplishments of Kip and Babs. The theme music for this radio program was a curious choice: the "water bucket" segment from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" composed by Paul Dukas in 1897, but certainly recognizable to juvenile listeners as Mickey Mouse's scene in Disney's 1940 film "Fantasia." While approximately 120 episodes of The Black Hood were aired on Mutual, only one audio copy has survived, the initial episode which was recorded as the audition disk.

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Eclectic and eccentric, the rogue polymath known as the Hong Kong Cavalier is the secret identity of Anthony Wayne Conn...a thirty-something example of far too much television and way too many comic books in the 1980s. He will charge if spooked.